dvd's hyip blog

End of a chapter

2010-09-20T07:57:00.000-07:00

HyipCalculator update: a friend asked me if I could share among my readers, his nice tool, an investments calculator, with most of features we use in hyip like days of investment, if 7 days per week or just Mon-Friday and compound.
I usually do all the calcs myself, because I rarely use compound, making things easier.
But with a calculator of this kind (or your own Excel sheet) you can save a bit of time and help you with calcs involving partial compound.

Hello folks, you probably have noticed that last week there were fewer and fewer updates in my blog.
There is no way to deny it: since my master degree started, my time to dedicate to my blog was severed lowered, and it will be even less as the course goes forward, especially when I need to start thinking about the thesis I will have to do.
Since I created this blog I always followed the rule "won't affect my personal life", and last year I was able to do it without problems, as my schedule was quite generous for me.
But now this no longer true.

So, here is the final update: dvdhyip is closing, there won't be more updates or articles (unless I really change my mind), and the site will remain as it is now, as long blogspot exists or doesn't delete it, so all the info it contains will remain available to everyone (my main wish was always to share knowledge). I will became again a regular investor in this industry.
I added a "export news" script from hyipnews.com, to at least have the latest news shown in my blog, even being inactive. The layout had some changes and I removed some banners and the current advertiser (Optimum pride) will be refunded accordingly.
The monitor page will be updated when any program falls, removing it, until there is nothing on it.

Overall it was a really great experience, I learned a lot from more experienced people, improved my research/critic skills for investments (whatever hyips, online or offline ventures) and my English is now miles better than 1 year ago.

I hope you liked this journey with my blog as much as I liked :)

Without nothing more to add, I wish all the best with your life and investments,
David

Fenix Trust update

2010-09-18T08:55:00.000-07:00

Once again, Fenix Trust has improved their site, adding Spanish language to it (including to phone number), allowing a better coverage/popularity of countries where this language is predominant.
I understand a bit because of its similarity to Portuguese, but far from being able to tell if it is an automatic translation. Still, it's better than having link to google translator lol:

Dear Spanish-speaking Internet users and active investors. For your convenience we have translated the interface of Fenix Trust into Spanish. In the future we plan to add more languages to our website.

Also please note that we have a Spanish speaking operator in our Support team.

Phone: +598 97174012 (For english and spanish speaking users) Working time: 9:00 to 17:00 GMT -3

Maybe this will improve the growth (it is now growing again, but a bit slow).

End of free surfer (for new members)

2010-09-16T07:57:00.000-07:00

It seems the cash cow option for smaller investors will be closed, although current members already inside this plan can still enjoy it:

Free Surfer Plan expire

The Free surfer plan will end today. It has served its purpose, giving us the number of viewers we wanted. The amount of new users to the Private plans and Investor plans is sufficient enough to give a good balance between advertising and viewers. Users who already purchased the Free Surfer Plan can continue using this one. However, the site numbers to view will be increased from 40 to 60 pages.

For those who already have 10 accounts on Vaults, this will mean that total time surfing will increase from ~20min to ~30-35 min if you do the trick I shown in my Vaults article (having 10 FireFox browsers opened at same time).

Honestly I am happy with this decision, because, frankly, I don't know where the money come from to pay this plan. Imagine 1000 members, each one with 10 accounts...this means 10000 free surfer plans, translating into 4000$ given each day for these accounts, and at after ~30 days it will be 120.000$.
Once again, don't ask me how they make money, but maybe there wasn't that amount of accounts, mainly after switching from auto to manual surf, that surely lowered the popularity of this plan, and now with 60 pages to surf it can further lower the "active" accounts because people doing the 10 accounts in serial (instead of parallel like we do) probably will give up.

But if the admin decided to close this plan, it probably means there was already a considerable number of accounts with this plan, and this measure was to avoid further increase of this plan above from the level they can sustain.

That's what I liked in Vaults so far, not only it is a success in my book (considering its online time and its high-ROI plans) but also has a very pro-active administration that take measures to help the longevity of the program.

Despite all of this, I strongly recommend to treat it like a game when playing with the other high-ROI plans, as all risks are still there like high-ROI hyips.

Here is a small Alexa analysis for those willing to invest on other plans:

Taking the 5.000 mark has the "really dangerous level" we can take two approaches:
-more negative, taking the overall growth since early August (red line); with this approach, Vaults should have no problems until early October.
-less negative, taking only the current growth in consideration, because the August explosive growth could also be due to growth of free surfer plans and people coming back from holidays.
With this approach, the dangerous level should only be hit in mid October.

But we also need to keep in mind that this growth was mainly due to free surfer plan, and things can slow down, or even decline with the end of this plan.
On other hand, the administration keep bringing more features and higher "investor plans" that can help a gradual growth on cashflow, like happened with original "surf" plans. But currently these investor plans are already at 1.000$, so I don't know how much more it can be stretched.
Maybe later the admin will decrease the profits of these investor plans, making original surf plans more attractive again (that force people to start from low amounts).

Time will tell, if you decide to play with high-ROI plans keep looking at Alexa graph trend.

News

2010-09-15T10:55:00.000-07:00

Today there are only a couple news:
Cash-Miner: officially moved to not paying status due to lack of admin reply to tickets. Probably it's done.

Ethanolb/BestEthanol- brought a strange move...it has intentions to close for members and deposits during October.
I don't know why did the administration decided that, but going "private" is never a good thing from what I seen in past. I just hope they know what are doing, and be prepared for negative comments from investors and bloggers, because this will be seen as the "going private" strategy to lure investors to deposit more, by creating a limited opportunity.

Like I said for the old Aballong...don't let this update influence you into depositing more, stick to your initial strategy.
I will change EthanolB risk level in my list to med-high, because it will be the risk for new deposits/members considering this update.
If it is a ponzi, this change will probably kill it, although it's possible for a ponzi to survive even if it goes private, mainly one with variable plans...by...cough....cough... opening side scams, but lets not give ideas lol, and honestly it wouldn't make sense from the admin standpoint because would just increase his work for nothing.

Here is the update:

Most Investment program's in the Internet fail. EthanolB wants to make sure such things not happen to Investors and to the EthanolB business. We choose a course where investors and the EthanolB team ending up satisfied.

Don't worry this is not a running out of money email.

On 01.10.2010 EthanolB does not accept new members anymore.
On 10.10.2010 EthanolB does delete all inactive members.
On 01.11.2010, EthanolB does not accept new deposits anymore.

Every investor receive daily payments of 0.4%-2.2%, until he reaches 180% of the initial investment. An 80% benefits and the initial investment. The last person to achieve this amount should be recorded by May 2011 or earlier.

Money Management

2010-09-15T06:01:00.001-07:00

As I said before in my blog, this is a very important topic, because I have learned that it is one of biggest "pillars" to have bigger chances of success (but obviously it alone can't do miracles) in either hyip world or "real" investments like Stocks, Forex, Real Estate and other kind of investments.

There are many Money Management (MM) strategies, but it is always important to adapt to the market we are investing, because sometimes one MM technique we use in one market might not be the better for other market.
For example, I don't use the same MM style for hyips and bet trading, simply because:
-in hyip world I invest in different hyips at same time, and must keep looking for new hyips with potential; and I usually need to wait a considerable amount of time before having principals back.

-in bet trading I only "invest" in one match at each time, with some exceptions when there are many matches at same hour. And usually in a timeframe of ~2hours I already know if I earned something or lost.

So for hyip world I use a "reinvest profits style" of MM, where I keep investing in new/same hyips with the previous profits, way before having principal back from olders hyips.
In bet trading, since most of times when I place the next bet I already know the result of previous match, I believe it is more suitable to have a base bet size (like 5% of balance). This allows me to dinamically change the amount I bet to help lowering the losses in bad situations and increasing the profits in good situations.
In the end, both MM strategies have similarities (compounding in long-term if we are earning profits), but each one adapted for its market, although the strategy I use in bets could be used (to some degree) for short-term hyips.

But enough of this introduction and let's focus on hyips.
Over the time I used different MM strategies, and saw some people using others, and over all this time I've seen that some strategies can help more than others. But of course it all boils down to what kind of investment style you have (more short-term or more longer term).

-invest in just 1-3 hyips (low diversification): well, I think all of you already know the old "don't place all your eggs in just one basket".
But, over the time, I found people relying too much in just few programs, and mainly investing big amounts on them (and some even high-ROI hyips), to later lose when the program collapsed.
I know sometimes there are few hyips worth investing, but in these cases I advise to place 10-15% (for each hyip) in those 1-3 programs and save the rest for future because better programs will probably show up.

-"plain" invest with good diversification: with the "plain" I mean without major MM strategy. For example you start with 1000$ and invest in 10 programs and then withdraw all profits to your pocket (out from e-currencies) without reinvesting, or creating a reserve for future programs, that greatly reduce the flexibility for long-run and maximizing profits.
With this strategy you already have some better chances to earn, depending on the programs you choose, but there are still some downs:
-you miss the opportunity to maximize profits, because you stick to these programs without looking for new programs;
-you are more vulnerable to big losses if a program falls just after you invested, as the deposits still have a considerable size.

About the question: "how many hyips should I invest?". Well, there is no "correct" number, and there is no need to invest into countless programs just because of sake of diversifying because you will tend to invest in "less good" hyips that can bring more losses than profits.

"Cyclical" Good diversification with reserve system: Basically you choose a number of hyips you can manage without problem (let assume 10 hyips), and then instead of withdrawing everything to you pockets, you instead left a % of the earnings sitting in e-currency account. Then, when a hyip falls, you can use this reserve to invest into a another hyips that looks good.
If there is no good enough hyip at moment you keep waiting and increasing the reserve until decent hyips appear, and then instead of 1 you can invest in 2 (or more if in mean time more hyips have fallen).
This allows better flexibility and can already work as a "reinvest/compound" mode, depending on how much % you place into the reserve fund.
I have used a similar strategy in 2nd half of 2009, and worked quite well, but still has the one disadvantage (also present on above strategies):
-you place too much at once in one program. And sometimes the program can die quickly...

Good diversification with reserve system: similar to previous strategy, but in this case you use the reserve as soon you find a good program, worth investing, even if all programs in your list keep doing well.
The advantage of this MM strategy over the previous is the fact that you are not tied to your current list, without needing to wait until one program falls, increasing flexibility, and also helps better decisions because in the previous MM system, you are investing after a program fall, that can mix up a bit your emotions, especially if you were at loss in that program.

This was the MM system I used mainly in 1st half of 2010.

"Reinvest profits style":
As you probably have noticed, I started from the simplest MM style to the more "dynamic" strategies. Of course the more dynamic is the MM, the more work you have, but in overall it is worth it.

Basically with this strategy you are always reinvesting back into new/existing hyips.
For example, in a weekly basis, or bi-weekly you analyze the current hyip market, and select a few hyips to invest (new, or already in your portfolio) that still have potential to turn the deposit you will do in profit.
This way you keep a "continuum" of new programs coming to your portfolio, and increase over the time the total money in "proved" programs already in your portfolio that still have good chances to bring profit.
So this strategy also diminishes big deposits at once in one "new" program, because, since you are reinvesting profits, the amount invested each week (or bi-week) is not too much compared to overall balance you already have invested in hyips. This way, if that program dies after your first investment, you won't lose much (relatively speaking).

How much of the profits should you reinvest? Well, actually it's your choice, but I think something around 70-80% is quite good. At least 50%, to have chance of increasing your capital, although 70-80% increase these chances. And with 90% you are already paying to little to yourself, increasing the probability to not reinvest one or another time to withdraw more profits.

Now another important question, how to start? Honestly I don't know the best way, but I believe a good way can be splitting your capital in 5-10 parts and invest gradually.
For example, you start with your capital, and you just see 3 hyips worth investing. You can take ~30% from your capital and place appropriate amounts into each hyip, accordingly to its quality, like 12%, 10% and 8%.
The rest 70%, you can divide into 7 parts, and invest each part weekly or bi-weekly, when you reinvest the profits.

There could be possibly better ways to start, this was just one example to do things "gradually".

And that's all for this article. I know there are others MM that people use, some with loss recovery (it can bankrupt faster than you think if you have bad luck), but here I tried to cover some I used, and others that seem to be quite frequent among investors.

Remember that Money Management can help your success in investments, and many times it's almost ignored by many people.
I incentive you to research well this topic, and chose the best MM for you, keeping in mind it can:
-increase profits over the time;
-lower losses in bad situations.

Knowledge Area

2010-09-05T03:46:00.000-07:00

This area is still in construction, and probably will always be because new articles appear, and some might be added here.

Hello, and welcome to dvdhyip's Knowledge Area, something I always wanted to do. This is mostly a compilation of some (maybe) good educating articles I did in past, placed here to make their information easier to find.
Some articles might be outdated, so I added a small description here for each article to explain a bit the context and the idea behind it.

How to use: click on the article you want, then you will be moved to the article summary/description. Click on the new link shown and you will be moved to article's page.

1- Introduction articles, a must read for all new investors
-----"First line" guide
-----Hyips=games
-----E-currencies and exchangers: my own experience
-----Advices: good or bad

2- Intermediate level articles
-----Money Management

First line guide
This article was based on Extremesurfs (and current ExtremeBlog and ExtremeChange admin) guide to high-ROI hyips/surfs sites. Still, it has plenty of good information about how this industry works, and it can also be applied to low-ROI hyips.

Hyips=Games
This in one of my best articles (considering the feedback I got from my readers about it).
I basically try to convince everyone to treat hyips like games, in order to help you to keep emotions away when dealing with hyips and investing, because it will allow you to make better decisions.
The same can be applied to all stocks, Forex, gambling, betting. Treating all kind of online and offline financial ventures as games will help you to prepare yourself to expect losses, and in overall you will be less influenced by your emotions.
I can give you my own experience in Betting world: in past I used to consider if my favorite team was playing or not and sometimes I did bad decisions because I thought it would secure a winning score, or wouldn't score more goals. Now I avoid matches where my favorite team plays, and in overall I have had much less losses because I follow more strictly my initial strategy.

E-currencies and exchangers: my own experience
In this article, my objective was not to explain the features of each e-currency and exchanger, but instead show a bit of experience I had/have with them, and tell what I like/dislike on each of them.
I did this article because I know new people in hyip world are always afraid of which e-currency to chose (I found people saying bad things of each one, so it's not easy to "see" which one is reliable), and the same for exchangers because there are plenty of scammers/bad services among exchangers.

Advices: good or bad
There is some controversy about advices, if bloggers should give them or not. I defend two positions about advices, because I believe they can be used for bad purposes (luring/convincing people to invest) or for educational purposes. It just depends on the person writing the advices and how readers should read them.
In my blog, you should treat my advices/opinions as incentives to do your own research and not to follow blindly.

Money Management
With this article I intend to show the importance of Money Management and introduce this topic a little, because it's many times not considered important by many people.
Yet I believe it plays a big role in your success when investing in hyips, that can increase profits and reduce losses, so this is an important topic to start the intermediate level.
-----------------------//-------------------------

Good research about AMF and Vintech status update

2010-09-05T03:06:00.000-07:00

Hello folks, today I came across a good review of AMF did by HyipBlogger. In my opinion it is one of best reviews I saw because it has a good research about the past of AMF, and Tony even asked some older members about refunds of the "old" AMF.

Here is the link, I recommend to read it.

About Vintech I had to move to waiting status. I am aware that they don't pay on weekends, but I requested my payment in early Thursday.
It is still inside the 48 hours timeframe, but usually the payments were fast. Hopefully it is nothing, and I've fingers crossed to receive payment on Monday.

Lately I have been doing a research in my past articles, and today I hope to start publishing a compilation of my most educational articles and create some kind of "Knowledge Area" to make this info available to new readers.
This is something I always wanted to do since I started the blog, but only now I have decent articles covering almost everything I want (including the recent article about ecurrencies and exchangers).

Great article about LR new terms

2010-09-04T03:26:00.000-07:00

Hello folks, during my daily "blogs" surf I found, in HyipNEWS.com a great article that explains much better my opinion than the small "text" I published in previous article.

Although I don't the like (much) the part of giving them power to block suspicious accounts, I am ok with it, because in practice it will be almost impossible to properly track money because all accounts are anonymous.
That's why I said these are mostly rules to look good on paper.

Now, what this article explains better (that I forgot/failed to explain properly) is the fact of LR created these rules because it's part of evolution of LR, and it must protect themselves against financial authorities, and potential claims of helping money laundering, like e-gold was accused of (if I understood correctly its story):

LibertyReserve has reached the level of development and the importance when there is a need to protect itself from possible claims by the authorities. By having this condition in User Agreement, they get a tool that will allow them to solve problems in collaboration with the authorities in extreme cases. And this, of course, does not impose any restrictions on work with clients (and almost all HYIPs are among them). Many other currencies and payment processors have the same rules and many issues simply must be talked over.

CompaxTrade review

2010-08-30T13:13:00.000-07:00

Not Paying

Hello folks, once again a reader emailed me asking for a review, and once again (because I am lazy) I decided to also publish it here to allow other readers to know what I think about CompaxTrade.

Please note that all links don't have referral link, so if you want to try your luck with this hyip I advise to use a monitor or blog offering ref back.

Plans: the two smaller plans, 1% and 1.3% for 180days, (which should be more than enough for 99% of the investors) are similar to what we were used to have in past programs, and should have no problems in being sustainable, but I don't know if they are attractive enough for "today's standards".
The later plans are...well a bit excessive, but probably no one will use them.

I would prefer bigger plans on the lower side, to make it more competitive, by including the principal in the earnings (avoiding large withdrawals). And maintaining or lower the bigger plans.

Design and content: The design is attractive, but it's far from making us "wow". The content seems to be original, and I like the trading reports because it adds some legitimacy to it, although it doesn't proof nothing. In fact it shows the higher plans 2.2% and 2.5% (translating into ~44% ~50% monthly) can't be sustained by the trades, even on great months, like June (with 41.46% shown by them), let alone a month like August (with just ~2.5%).
Probably these reports are created out of the hat, but still are a good effort from the program to sell his "fish".

Claims vs BS: they claim to be online since 2009. There are even news from 2009 in the site. But we never never heard from them before, all threads in major forums started in 25 August 2010, the domain was updated in 23 August 2010, and SSL certificate created in 17 August 2010. Probably they took the advantage of the domain being almost 1 year old, and created the 2009 news and offlline to online story in order to make it credible.

Security and script: The script is...well, I don't know. For sure it isn't NeverSay or GoldCoders, but it's very familiar to me, and the drop down menu to choose the currency in the deposit page is similar to some hyips I seen. Probably a custom script from a programmer that also did scripts to other hyips.
The host and DDoS protection provider is Dragonara. Whois tells the host is shared, but I checked Dragonara page, and they only offer dedicated servers, so probably whois info hasn't been updated yet (and one more fact against the claim about being online since 2009).
It also has SSL, that although it's not forced, it is automatically activated when logging in or when registering a new account.

Payment processors: LR, PM and bank wires. They claim to accept other e-currencies in the FAQ, but the script only accepts LR and PM, so I don't know how much more e-currencies they accepts.

Risk vs Reward: it's still early to make any kind of analyze using Alexa trends in growth. Still, it's worth mentioning that there is currently a pretty big spike in Alexa. Honestly I don't know the reason of it, as I haven't seen this program advertised/reviewed in the blogs I visit daily. Maybe it's the admin trying to manipulate traffic, or used a lot of monitors because the thread at TG already have 9 pages. This make me wonder (using lots of monitors) about admin intentions to run a slow burner or fast race hyip (being fast also falls faster).

In first plan, you will need 100 business days (20 weeks, ~5months or ~140 calendar days). Frankly this is a lot of time, and you will have to face the black December and survive it in order to reach 100% return (principal back).
And, considering how the launch was (probably due to the use of many monitors), I have a few doubts about its survivability during December.
Of course we never know, and most of times (if admin is decent), it will be the market that decides the future of a hyip.
For anyone willing to join it, I would advise to wait 1-2 weeks to see if Alexa finally gives us a trend (declining, slow growth or fast growth).

To end this review, if I had to give CompaxTrade a final score, it would be...well I even don't know, maybe 2.5/5 in the long-term scale, because honestly it is below of Safe Depositary (3/5) in terms of overall quality and in risk/reward area.

I hope you find this review useful, and remember to always keep your investments at an affordable level.

E-currencies and exchangers: my own experience

2010-08-28T05:04:00.000-07:00

Hello folks, with this article I won't cover in depth each e-currency by telling its characteristics and other info you can find in many places.

Here I will focus in what matters more (in my opinion): my experience with each one.
I know I promised this article almost an year ago, but I that time I clearly didn't have enough experience with most e-currencies, mainly LR at that time.
Now I use LR, AP, STP and MoneyBookers (although I won't cover the this one because it's not used in hyips, but mainly in betting world) in a daily basis, and sometimes PM and GDP

E-currencies

Liberty Reserve: well known as LR. This is by far the most popular e-currency in hyips nowadays, with virtually every hyip accepting it (with just some rare exceptions).
It's main feature it's the ease of use, because you don't need to verify anything, just open an account and start playing with it, in full anonymity, and with as many accounts as you want.
And all transactions are final, meaning that all money you receive is yours and won't be reverted.

However, these advantages also play against it:
-it's the currency most attacked by hackers/malicious software, because if anyone "cleans" your account, there is very little you can do.
-it helps scammers, as they won't have problems with blocked accounts or something (although this is a good thing for decent admins)
-by being totally anonymous it poses some potential issues, in case something happen to it just like happened to StrictPay. I mean...the accounts are anonymous, how do you expect to prove the ownership of a determined account(s) if something bad happens to LR?

Another thing I don't like in LR it's the lack of direct options to deposit/withdraw. This can increase the flexibility of the options to deposit/withdraw by using third party exchangers, but unfortunately in this industry is full of scammers, and sometimes exchangers are part of it.

Overall I like Liberty Reserve for a daily use, but I wouldn't trust big amounts of funds on it, due to potential hacking issues, and lack of being properly regulated (being based in Costa Rica doesn't give me too much security, just look at SP situation...)

About good exchangers to deposit/withdraw LR, I will give some later in this article.

PerfectMoney- or PM. I don't use much because for me it's another "LR": no KYC policy and irreversible transfers. And every hyip accepting it also accepts LibertyReserve.
However PM adds what LR lacks: direct options to deposit and withdraw, without the need of third party exchangers.
Still, PM never got as popular as LR, maybe because of some rumors in past and some problems they had with bank wires withdrawals (pretty much like SP faced initially).

Just like LR, it's good and easy to use, but trusting big amounts? Simply no.

Global Digital Pay- or GDP. Just like PM, it doesn't add nothing substantial over LR.
And for me...it's still a new kid that need to prove himself.
Some severe downtime it faced back in March haven't helped at all its reputation.

StrictPay- (SP) it's a dead duck right now. It's not even worth of being mentioned, apart of warning to not deposit any money on it now.

AlertPay- (AP). This processor is in another level from LR/PM/GDP, because it is a KYC (know your customer) processor and allow charge backs and accounts blocking.
This adds a lot more security, because it means less problems with hackers, and mainly, can be a good ally for your hyips investments against some admins, as you can complain in case the admin don't want to pay you.
Also, by blocking accounts, it can means you have a chance of recovering part of your initial in those cases where a program fall before you are in profit.

The biggest use I gave to AP was to play in high-ROI games, because of it "extra" layer of protection when a program falls. While those using LR/PM/GDP are stuck with the losses...with AP you usually have better chances to not lose everything, if you are not in profit.
Of course sometimes the admins are pretty clever and start withdrawing since the beginning of the program, or offer "free" exchange from LR/PM/GDP to AP, to get rid of the later. When this happen, it is usually a red flag, because means the admin is preparing the bags to leave.
And also means your chances to get back money in case of site closure gets much lower.

Of course AP isn't just good things, and in fact, these "features" that give you some protection can also be a problem:
-AP can block accounts of paying programs, bringing them a lot of cashflow trouble. This affects severely low-ROI and high-ROI programs, although in the laters it is almost a death setence because things happens at a too fast pace.

But why does AP blocks accounts of paying hyips?
-most accounts are opened with fake/robbed documents, or bought in black market.
- if there are too many complains from jealous people, AP will probably block the account to double check what's going on. And obviously, the admin can't prove the ownership of the account most of times.
-and then here is my half-baked theory...imagine yourself in AP position. Now imagine someone opened an account with faked documents with a regular mail and name.
Then imagine what's happen next....the account, being used for a hyip, start getting lots of money entering on it.
And then? I bet AP becomes like "wtf!! Why there is so much money in this account in just couple days", and with this thought it's not hard to think why the account is blocked to verify the documents better and/or ask more more to make sure the account is not robbed or something.
Then you know what happens most of times...the hyip admin can't prove the account belongs to him...

Keep in mind that this is an half-baked theory, just based in assumptions, and because many accounts get blocked a few days after the launch of the hyip.

Now, based in my experience, I separate two kind of accounts (this also works for STP):
-those that have an name and email totally different from the hyip. These kind of accounts probably bought in black market and have a high probability of being blocked very quickly.

-those that have a name and email associated with the hyip site. These have lower incidence of getting blocked. Probably because AP is aware they are being used for a hyip, and maybe double check it very early.

Still, when a program gets its AP account blocked, what you prefer:
-being part of LR crew and face a potential loss in case the program can't survive?
-or being part of people using AP, and have some probability of being, even if not fully, refunded?

For me it's obvious....for high-ROI games it's AP or STP.
For low-ROI programs, things are a bit different because you can only complain within 30days (or something similar) in case the hyip stops paying.
Honestly, I don't have experience about how things are done after these 30days.

Another features I love in AP are:
-direct bank transfer for deposits and withdrawals, with low fees. But keep in mind this option might not be available in your country.
-much more regulated than LR and similars. AP is under Canada and US laws. If I remember well, E-gold was also under US legislation and got problems for this. I don't know it happened to E-gold (I suspect because it was used for money laundering), but probably won't happen to AP because it is more strict about KYC policies and money laundering.

So my overall opinion about AP: great for daily use, after the verification. And also, I trust bigger amounts on it than on LR/PM/GDP.
But I still don't trust too much money...we never know what can happen lol.

SolidTrustPay-(STP). I like it more and more. Overall it is pretty much like AP, and offers a similar "layer" of protection.
People usually like it more than AP because it blocks much fewer accounts from paying programs....however this is mainly because STP is nowhere popular as AP, and if STP was used as much as AP in hyips, I would bet we would also see a similar rate of accounts blocked.

Like I said: it is AP revisited.
But there is one feature I simply love on it over AlertPay: the debit card option to withdraw funds. It's simply awesome, I usually use the priority service and on next days the funds are loaded in my card, allowing me to withdraw in most ATMs.
With AP I am stuck with ~5days to see the money in my bank account.

I heard some issues with debit cards in past, mainly delays in getting funds loaded to cards.
Honestly I don't know if this still happens because I am not the best example, as I usually only load my card with ~100€ (~135$) from time to time.
So, for small investors like me, I can say it works pretty well. For bigger amounts, try yourself and tell us your experiences.

Exchangers

There are plenty of them in this industry, some great, others good and some that are simply crap or worst, scammers.
Just an important note: for STP and AP I advise to use approved exchangers because both can annoy you if you get funds "not approved". I never had any issue, but I heard stories of AP accounts getting blocked because of this.

eCardOne- the first exchanger I ever used, it even had another name. It was to load my LR account.
For European people this is one of best options because the bank wires are under SEPA agreement, meaning the fees are pretty low (for me was 3€ if I remember correctly).
Also, this exchanger has a big reputation (or at least used to have).

Nowadays I use it most for instant exchanges between LR usd and LR eur, and to/from GDP.

xChanger- the exchanger I use most and my favorite. My relation with exchanger started a long time ago, when I was much more newbie, and the admin helped me a lot several times by exchanging from e-currencies not listed on the commercial service to LR.
This not only was a big help at that time, but also increased a lot my trust on admin.

What I mainly like in this exchanger is:
-cover all 6 major e-currencies used in hyips.
-the exchanges from LR to STP/AP are usually very, very quickly if the admin is online (check if live support is active or not).
-exchanges between LR/GDP/PM are also fast from what I heard.
-exchanges from STP to LR are also fast, usually in 1-2 days, because he needs STP approval.

Exchanges from AP to LR is something I never did. But if you want to do then you should be aware that you need to verify yourself in xChanger service to prove the AP account belongs to you. I think this is something required by AP.

GoldexPay- I personally don't have experience with it, but always heard good things from it, so I think it's worth to be mentioned here.

ExtremeExchange- another exchanger I have only good experiences. The admin is the owner of ExtremeSurf monitor and blog.
I used it a few times to exchange from LR to STP (the fees were lower than xChanger) and when StrictPay was falling, because it was one of very few exchangers still accepting it.
I think it only lacks AP to be a "complete" exchanger.

When I used it, exchanges were also fast, but I don't know if this is still the norm because the admin has been quieter on his blog because of personal life options (see here), so it's hard to know if this also affected the speed of the exchanges or not.
I think the best way to know is to email the admin before starting the exchange to see how fast he answers. This way you will have a better idea of how much time (in average) the exchanges will take.

Onlychange and autoconverter- two small services I use mainly to exchange between PM/LR instantly. The fees are not the best, but I like them because are instant.
But keep in mind these don't have a big/considerable reputation like those I mentioned above, so I advise to only use small amounts.

And I think it's everything....all (or nearly all) my experience with e-currencies and exchangers here.

Good opportunity to earn easy money: thevaults.net

2010-08-23T02:50:00.000-07:00

important: free surfer plan is closed, check here.

updated the bat instructions
update2: sometimes the free surfer plan is disabled, so don't worry if one day you go register another account and free surf plan doesn't appear.

Hello folks.
This article is more directed to "newbies" who are looking mainly to find some "easy" money to start investing in this hyip world, without risking their own money.
The "seniors" hyip investors can also try it, but might not like it due to the time you need to spend daily on it.

I still remember when I started with 50$ (lol), and I would love to have at that time a similar opportunity to help me to increase my initial money.
I will cover mainly the "free surfer" plan in this half-baked review, because my main objective is to teach "newbies" a source of money that can help them to start their career in hyip world, but Vaults also offers other high-ROI plans, although I consider those more riskier (because you will be risking your own money, unlike on free surfer plan where you will risk at max 10$).

Now let's start with a bit of story:
I know Vaults since June, but I was a bit afraid to introduce it in my blog because I thought it was on the last steps because they were introducing new plans that disrupted the almost perfect organization they had in plans.

Basically Vaults.net can be considered a high-ROI surf program, because it offers 10x12, 11x13, 12x12...well a considerable number of plans that range from 120% to 144% (paid when the plan expires) final ROI.
What impresses more in this program was the very clever system to promote a forced slow growth and to avoid hit n runners. I have seen many programs in past with systems like 50/50 rule and re-invest bonus, both most of them failed.
In Vaults the system was very clever because it uses your and others investors greed.
You had to start with 10$ plan, and then, when you finished it, you would be allowed to upgrade to 20$ plan (or stay on the same 10$ plan) and so on until you reach a maximum of 1500$ plan.
So all investors had to start with 10$ (or more if you used multiple accounts).
But, as you know...everyone wants always more (greed factor), and this system worked very well to keep reinvestments going on, allowing a gradual growth of the site over the time.
This allowed the survival of the program for a long, long time, the biggest I ever saw for a high-ROI program: at least since December 2009 (talkgold thread), but I heard it is online since May 2009.

Vaults.net is the living proof that a well thought program, even being a high-ROI one, can last very long, despite the "crisis" that happened.
And mainly, it shows admins like Roger (see the article here) that blaming the investors is not the solution. Instead, a good admin, should watch the market conditions and adapt the hyip to it.
Vaults can be an surf program with an advertising side, but it is impossible to sustain the plans it offers only with advertising, so I am sure it has a big Ponzi side, cleverly managed.

Now, in June, Vaults introduced the "investors" plans, that allowed you to jump the "ladder" and being able to invest 100$-500$ right away.
This already caused some concern for me, but the free surfer plan, that pays 0.40$ each day forever concerned me much more, because in my opinion it would drain the funds very quickly.

But, fortunately, Vaults administration is very active, and transformed the "free surfer" plan from a very attractive thing (auto surf 5 seconds each, unlimited number of accounts, 2$ cashout....) to something that can bring money to the site through advertising, because now this plan is manual surf and with 15 seconds for each site, maximum of 10 accounts for each person and 10$ min cashout.
The "tweaked" version of this plan is much better, because it avoided the exploit of it (a person could have 100 accounts without any work because it was auto surfing) and the manual surf make the advertising in the site worth more.

After this introduction, let's talk about the free surfer plan itself.
With this plan, you invest 1$ and you will earn 0.40$ forever, or better, while the site stays online.

Now some important rules:
-you are only allowed to have one plan per account. The script handles this automatically, so you don't have to concern about it;
-you can have a maximum of 10 accounts (you don't need 10 emails, just put anything from your imagination on the following 9 accounts);
-you can only buy one plan each day, in your overall accounts. This mean that you need 10 days to fill 10 accounts with investments (free surfer or other plans);
-you can only request a cashout each day, in your overall accounts. And the minimum is 10$.

Now let's go to the numbers...with 10$, you will earn ~120$ each month (10accounts x 30days x 0.40$), and you can only withdraw after around 25 days, due to the current 10$ minimum.
I prefer to withdraw in a monthly basis, it's easier, and sometimes compensate one day or another I couldn't surf.

How much time you are required each day to surf?
On a straight mode, you need around 10 minutes for each account (40 sites x 15 seconds each). Multiply this by 10, and add the time needed to do logins and you will need around 2hours each day.
I know this sounds a lot, but you can do it in parallel with other activities you are doing online.
But you are in dvdhyip blog, so of course I would teach a trick to diminish the time needed.

You can use multiple browsers and surf various accounts at same time.

Alternative 1
The best browser to do it it's firefox.
However I must warn, if you use FireFox as primary browser, having multiple profiles will affect the normal behavior of FireFox, so I would advise to not do this.
In windows, create a batch file (the easiest way it's to do a text file and then rename it to .bat) and add the following:

@echo off
set MOZ_NO_REMOTE=1
start "" "C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -p
set MOZ_NO_REMOTE=0

update: you don't have to place it on FF folder, you can have it in your desktop. What I meant was to make sure the 3rd line (start "" "C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -p) has your correct FireFox folder, as this is the default folder for Win7/Vista, but you may have it installed on a different folder, and winXP default folder is different, depending on your windows language (if I remember correctly).
To edit the bat, just right-click on it and select "edit", on Win7/Vista. In winXP just open it with notepad, I don't remember well (I no longer use XP), but I think it worked with notepad.

Make sure to place the folder where you have your Firefox installation.
If you are totally unsure about creating a batch file, I uploaded mine here. But make sure you have a up to date antivirus because I heard in past that some hackers changed links in blogs to new links with virus.
Also, before opening the bat file, right-click on it and select "edit" and make sure it only has the code I told above.

Now, after the bat file is done, all you need is to double click on it, create the number of profiles you want are good to go. This way, if you have 10 browsers, and fully commit yourself to just surf, you will be able to surf all 10 accounts in 10-15minutes, depending in your internet connection.

Alternative 2
If you use FF as your main browser, you probably won't want to have strange behavior on it due to multiple accounts conflicts.

So...the alternative is to have multiple different browsers.
For example you can have IE, FF, Safari and Chrome. With Opera I can't login, but the version I use is already 1 year old, so it might be worth to try a newer version.
Of course this alternative is not as good as having 10 FireFox profiles, but with 4 browsers you can already cut your surf time a lot.

If later (after receiving your first row of cashouts) you want to risk some money in investors plan, for example in the 100$ plan, you have to contact support to cancel one of yours free surfer plans, in order to allow you to select a new plan. This way you can keep going with 9 free surfer accounts and 1 investor account.

Remember that this site is as risky as one hyip, despite of being online for a long time. Still, I think that giving 10$ to potentially receive a lot more (120$ each month) it's worth it.
If the site goes down before you are able to cash out (you need at least 25days), you probably will be more pissed of due to the time you spend surfing, than due to the money lost.

If I had to give a score to Vaults.net, it would be definitely 5/5, in the high-ROI scale (not comparable to the others scores in my current list), because it is one of most successful high-ROI program I came across.

If you decide to go for the "investor" plans, remember to treat it like a game, and keep your investments at an affordable level.

Finally

2010-08-21T03:20:00.000-07:00

Finally blog T did a good article.

I personally liked it, because apart from using it to continue to attack "experts" and some programs (the tomatoes farmer analogy is pretty clear lol), it has a good message: treat every program as a ponzi/potential scam.
Basically the message is similar to my "hyips=games" article.

I advise (yes I am giving an advice lol) to go and read the article.

However there are somethings I don't agree:
-why keeping call others ref sharks? We are no longer in 2008-2009. In the year I am, 2010, pretty much all blogs offer RCB. I don't give because I am lazy, but I promote the use of monitors with RCB like I have on right side of my blog.
So it's not "cool" to call others ref sharks when it is barely true nowadays.
-there is a difference between pictures and videos and videos showing admin himself. The later obviously adds more credibility. Xaga videos were a good initiative, but without showing admin face, their credibility was almost none.
-failed to tell NanoMoney was online for 4 years, but 3 of them was almost inactive due to the pretty low returns. This is an important thing.
-why liking to deal with admins like Roger Miller? He is what I call an amateur because failed to see the market conditions (there was a big cloud of fear), and worst, decided to take out AP and STP (both very popular in high ROI hyips due to the increased safety they can provide, although not always)...and then blame the investors. Being straightforward is not enough to be a good admin.
-the gambling part. In order to have success investing in hyip I believe that gambling among different programs (to diversify) is not the way to go, unless you have lot's of luck. I still believe that analysis and research is essential to make better decisions.
Here is an analogy with betting, a thing I do in daily basis. I can just gamble among different matches, but like on hyips, I will be only in profit at end of day if I have luck. Now if I do a basic research and analysis, and chose only matches that fit my criteria, and couple all this with a good money management strategy...I can be in profit in almost all days.
Of course, even with all the research and analysis I still lose in some matches, and this also happens in hyip world (and even stocks and forex worlds).
However you can't expect to start winning right way when you start doing analysis and research. It is a learning process and with time you will earn experience and "fine-tune" the way you do your own research and analysis, using the available tools.
That's why I always advise to start with small amounts of money, the same applies to betting world.

The example he gave, about a tomatoes farmer is good. However the part about bank loan is a bit debatable, because nowadays the banks are no longer that generous, and there are big differences from country to country.

Overall it was a good article, and I am happy this small war incentived blog T to publish educational articles. At least we have some improvements.

Advices: good or bad?

2010-08-21T02:30:00.000-07:00

Hello folks, today I am feeling with good mood to write, so I decided to do a article about advices, because it has been a hot topic since last week, mainly because there are different opinions about: some say it is a good thing, and others say it is a bad thing.

So the ultimate question is "Advices: good or bad?"
My opinion: both, without doubt!

Let's start with the bad side.
One of main reasons the advices can be bad is if people take them almost blindly, like "ok, if he tells it is good to go, then I will try it".
This is not the correct way to follow advices folks, because this way you are not learning and building you knowledge about how and where to invest.

And then, depending on the person who writes the advices, the advices can be double bad, because unfortunately, there are people who write wonders about determined programs just to lure people and build a good downline.
Fortunately I have seen less and less of this among blogs, but I still receive some nice spam emails telling "take a look at this program, truly great, I already placed there 1.000$, please join here".

---------off-topic------------
An area where this is still happens a lots of time (praising a program like if it was the best thing ever since sliced bread) is MLMs, matrices and cyclers.....promising financial freedom and similar crap. But the people that like to promote them fail to tell most of them are not much more than an organized ponzi system (people must join, and pay, in order to upline receive money). Sure some offer some services to tell "you are buying the service and it's not guaranteed that you will make money", but most are still a ponzi, in my opinion.
A decent MLM should not promise the financial heaven, and not force people to pay to join, but instead offer a commission for each product/service sold and commissions when your downline also sells something.
---------end of off-topic-----------

Now the good side.
From my personal experience I can tell you that advices can be good, and play a significant role in my daily contact with hyips.

How?

Let me explain: when I see a well known blog to me, that gives advices to help people making money (this requires you to know a bit about the blogger), giving an advice about a program, telling it is a good opportunity, I just don't join it blindly.
Instead I think "ok, if he tells it is good, maybe I should check it (or check again if I already saw that program)", and then I do my own analysis and research in order to see if the program is truly a good opportunity or not.

The same thing happens when one of my readers ask me for a review/opinion about a certain program. The reader tells "it looks good", and I think "ok, let's take a look, maybe we have something here".

What I mean is: advices can be good, if you take them as an incentive to do a deeper research about that program, and always taking the advice as an opinion to help you to build your own opinion, and not to make it your opinion.

I hope you take all my advices/opinions/suggestions with this article in mind. I don't want you to follow what I say without thinking about it. What I want is to help you, and my advices/opinions are just a "tool" to help you making your own decisions.
And have in mind that sometimes I am wrong, that's why I insist to have your own opinion. It wouldn't be the first time a reader tell me I am wrong due to this or that ;) sometimes I miss important details.

AMF new videos

2010-08-20T02:40:00.000-07:00

I forgot to include AMF in yesterday's news. Honestly I knew there was something missing on it, as it felt "empty".
And this morning I noticed what was missing....referring AMF new videos.

AMF admin, Tish, as he promised (to continuing update us with videos from the farms), brought a couple of new videos:

4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJXxIbA6gv8 This is another farm.
5 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Weig4sDwFZ0 this second farm and work being done

I liked the 2nd video because it shows that Tish is not standing still, but expanding the business into new farms.
There is no doubt that these videos (and the previous vids) add a lot of credibility to AMF, comparing to others hyips we see around in hyip world.
Also Tish always said he is available for meetings, so anyone wanting to deposit considerable amounts should try to meet him first. Nothing like knowing personally the person that will use our money.

Finally, just want to remind you that even real businesses (and also Forex and Stocks investments) can face problems/losses, so keep always the investments under an "affordable" amount.
For example, remember PMAForex, it had some serious losses weeks ago, showing that real things also carry risk, not just ponzis.

News and hyip h2h

2010-08-17T07:08:00.000-07:00

Hello folks, here I am again to bring some news from the programs I have investments/monitor.
I first want to apologize, because I had time yesterday to do this update, but I went to bad really early. I have been feeling a bit strange for almost a week, with fever at the end of the day, and feel really tired all day.
Hopefully it is nothing, but tomorrow I will try to go to doctor to check what's going on.

Now let's move to the hyip world.

Fenix-Trust: now has the Chinese language available. It is a good move to impress chinese investors, and might help to keep the current growth going on:

Convenience in use of Fenix Trust investment service it's what we aim to, doing our job. That is now the interface of Fenix Trust is available online not only in English but in Chinese as well.

Now all Chinese-speaking users can use the site with a comfort. Probably this step will help some users to discover a convenient, comprehensible and profitable investment project Fenix Trust.

In the future we plan to develop our online project and regularly introduce the changes offered by our users. Want to make Fenix Trust better? Contact Support service and we will consider your proposal and probably bring it to life since the business of Fenix Trust traders gets better than expected, profits grow and very soon we plan to become a leader on the online investment market.

Hyip Selections

Ok, I have been keeping an eye in some programs and I think it's time to expand my investments a bit.
I was looking at 4, but I am only willing to choose 2, so I decided to do a head vs head.
Keep in mind that the arguments shown her can be used as advices/suggestions/my opinion to help your decisions, because unlike blog T tells, I believe most of my readers come to my blog to see my opinion. At least it's the impression I get from the emails I get :)
Of course these advices/opinions are only to help you build your decision/opinion and not to follow blindly, because doing that won't help you to improve the way you invest in hyips.

Vintech vs FXmonger
Ok, the decision here is a bit hard, mainly because I haven't done a review for anyone of these.
Vintech has a better "wow" factor than FXmonger, but honestly, both look very good at first sight.
The content in Vintech appears to be original (checked several parts in google), and the same for Fxmonger.
Both are well provided in security and script field.
Both are well served in terms of currencies accepted, the FXmonger offers more option, but Vintech accepts AP, a well known KYC processor.

The risk/reward ratio, for small deposits (<100$) FXmonger has the advantage because of 30days plan. But for bigger deposits, 200+$ Vintech has an upper hand because the rates are a bit better, meaning lower time to get your principal back. On the current growth, both are doing fine, with a not fast growth (although FXmonger is growing faster), and plenty of room to grow:

So, as you see it's not a easy decision. I decided to go VinTech route mainly because I have already FXmonger covered in my investment in LionsSociety (and FXmonger was part of this week M&S list).

Mutual Treaty vs SafeDepositary

These two are much easier to compare, because I have reviewed already (Mutual here and Safe here).
As I already said, both are pretty much in the same level.
Safe wins on overall design and content, while Mutual has better plans for long run.
Safe has bankwires, and Mutual has AP and STP;
Mutual has better ref commissions (because they are lower lol);
Both are well covered in security and script;
Both have good risk/reward ration, with Mutual having a slight hedge here.
But the risk/reward is not considering the popularity growth due to lack of Alexa data (both are pretty new).

However I already have some concerns on Mutual side, because it already used "MNO card", and you know that I don't like much hyips doing this at launch.
Now let's see how this will affect the growth, it will depend on how much it is praised or not in the review.
But Safe can also decide to do the same....

Here I will go for Safe Depositary, because Mutual was also covered by LionsSociety, and using MNO at beginning is something I don't like much (but sometimes it doesn't "damage" the program with fast growth).

Since this program is still new, the deposit won't be as big, and I will invest more depending how things go. For, example I did the same for FenixTrust, because in beginning things were still a bit uncertain, but now look pretty good in terms of growth.

I hope this info helps you.

Another small review: Mutual Treaty

2010-08-14T08:06:00.000-07:00

warning: payments pending reported!

Hello folks, once again I am here to bring a small review of a program requested by one of my readers.
Since I find the program interesting enough, and the review is also decent enough to be here, I decided to publish it, to share the info with all my readers.

Once again, all links are without ref link, because I am not a member of this program. So, I advise to seek a upline that gives ref back ;)

Here it is:

Plans: at first glance, the rate offered might seem to be too high for long run (2-2.4%, resulting in 10-12% weekly), but the principal is not returned, making it more sustainable, and mainly, will avoid large withdrawals when plans expire. And since all plans last 100 business days, the total ROI will be 200-240%, not too excessive for something done in 20weeks, or 140 calendar days.
Some programs in past, like Saza, which gave 8-10% weekly forever lasted very long, so Mutual Treaty plans should be sustainable on long run because they don't last forever...as long there is a positive growth and "decent" admin.
I just don't understand if the compound is available as optional or forced in bigger plans, but it is not much important because most people will join the first plan.

Design and content- the design itself is good and attractive, but we never know if it was copied. The content is a bit let down, because the about us page is everything but original. Check here and here, and see if there are similarities.

Company incorporation- they try hard to look genuine, and while this doesn't prove it is real at all, it shows the admin is doing efforts to sell his "fish". But what really caught my eye was the fact the incorporation was done in November 2009, showing the project wasn't rushed, but probably well thought, and was waiting for a good timing to launch.

Security and script- the script is NeverSay. The site offers SSL connection, but it's not forced. There is a Comodo Seal to assure you are on the right site and not on a cheap copy. Interestingly these seals were popular last year, but now we don't find it many times. I heard that Comodo and Verisign made the verifications more strict due to the large numbers of hyips/scams they got associated with, in past.
The host is the well known Dragonara, a very good host and DDoS protection provider.

Payment processors- LR, PM, STP and AP. Pretty much all 4 currencies most used in hyips. Personally I like to see a program with AP and STP, as they offer a bit more safety than LR/PM, but are also known for blocking accounts. So I checked their AP and STP account, and both are in name of Mutual Treaty and not those using strange names (this usually happens in high-ROI games), so maybe the odds to get blocked are low.

Risk vs reward- considering you will be joining the first plan, you will need 10weeks to get principal back, or around 2 months and half.
Right now it's hard to determine what admins plans are, if a fast game, or a slow pace game. However it isn't too far fetched to think it should survive till Christmas without sweating much, unless the admin decide to do a hard launch now that can affect severely this hyip's life.

Now, if I would have to give a final score, it would be 3/5, because I think it is on the same level of Safe Depositary (which I reviewed yesterday), when you look to the overall picture of both.
Both don't have a possible "forecast" yet; Safe has better site design and content in my opinion, but Mutual has better plans because of no principal back; Safe has bank wires, and Mutual has AP and STP; the rest of features are almost the same: Dragonara, SSL,...
And mainly: both have similar good risk/reward for now.

So, as you see the level of both is around the same, but of course we never know which one will be a success, can be both, or none of them.
As usually, invest wisely, and maintain things in a affordable level.

Small review: Safe Depositary

2010-08-13T03:38:00.000-07:00

note: after all, RRPs earn 20% more ref commission and not 20%. The who asked for the review just told me he confirmed with the support team.

Hello folks, yesterday I got a request to do a review about this program. As I told to this reader, my "full" review are a bit time-consuming, so I decided to write a small review to this reader by email.
But it turns out that the review is quite "acceptable" to be published, and I think this way I could already give my opinion about this program to all my readers.

So, let's recycle the Safe Depository small review:

Plans: the plans offer a very decent return, even for small investors (1.6% daily for 150 business days), but shouldn't give the principal back to help program longevity.

Design and content: well the design is very good a professional, I just hope they are not copying anyone. The content, after some google searchs, appears to be original, which is a good thing.

Security and script: the script appears to be customized and has some nice features like charts on backoffice and a kind of cryptocard for more security. The script was familiar to me, and the reader who asked me for the review also told me it was similar to the scripts used by fxstar and Alpha-money. This doesn't mean it is the same team behind Safe Depositary (although increase the possibility), but maybe the programmer is the same.
The host is Dragonara, well known for its almost non-existent down-times. And forced SSL is present, improving security.

Payment processors: LR, PM and Bank Wires. I would like to have at least STP or AP (maybe STP, because AP has been more strict by blocking accounts).
On the other side, it offers Bank Wires, which usually is a sign of quality (not all care to do the effort to accept it). However you must verify your account in order to use Bank Wires, and you know...sharing personal documents with hyips is never a good idea.

Referral commisions: here is something I don't like. The commissions are too big (8% is too much, let alone the multi-level and the 9.6% for RPP). This can hurt the cashflow a bit on long run.

Risk vs reward: considering you will be joining the first plan, you will need around 13 weeks to be in profit (1.6x5x13) or 91 calendar days. So it's 3 months.
It's too early to try any kind of forecast. But 3 months is still before Christmas, so at this moment maybe the risk vs reward makes it worth the bet.

But there is a trick you can do to have your principal back faster: use a monitor with refback, and use the big ref commission to your side.
I checked its "rate us" list, and there is list4hyip there. It offers RCB, and is usually fast processing it (I already used it in past).
This way you can add 8% or more to your return right on beginning, lowering the days needed to be in profit to around 80 calendar days (~11weeks).
And if there is any of these RCB monitors becoming a RRP, it would be even better, with 9.6% right on beginning....but I wouldn't count on it because of the minimum of 500$ to became a RRP.

If i would rate this program, I would give it 3/5 for now. The commissions are really big, the plans with current rates shouldn't give principal back, but these rates also play to our side because it means we need less days to be in profit.
Apart from these, the program has some quality (above the average), and the end the risk/reward doesn't appear to be bad.

But...some experienced people say all this analysis is useless, so you have just lost your time by reading this review lol.

Remember to always not invest more than you should. Investing amounts we can lose without sweat will make you less anxious and somehow things will be better (don't ask me why, but it happens, maybe because we are more relaxed, resulting in better decisions).

note: all links don't have any ref link. As I said before, I only place the ref link in programs I am already an investor. If you like the program, instead of joining without upline, I recommend to use a RCB monitor ;)

Urgent information

2010-08-11T01:49:00.001-07:00

Hello people, as I expected my last article brought some disputes into my shout-box.

But I would like to tell a few things:
-I ask all my readers to refrain themselves from insulting MNO and its readers. There is no use on it, and in the end people won't take you seriously.
Attack with arguments, not insults, like I "tried" in my article.

-I don't want to start any kind of blog war. I tried, really tried, to remain silent about this, but you know how I am...always giving my opinion about everything.
I did the article because I "felt" the attack included me (I am one of those who use largely Alexa trends, although not the only one).
But mainly, Paul attack had so many contradictions (isn't the security and script important? From his reviews I thought it was,...and other examples).

I hope Mr Paul don't reply to my article, so we can end all this. And even if he replies, unless he contradicts himself a lot again, I will try to remain silent so we can end this.

Remember: avoid to insult others (like the MNO reader that appeared in my box) in discussions. There is no use to act like that, it just fuels more insults.

Quick update about BE

2010-08-07T02:58:00.000-07:00

Hi folks, I noticed I forgot to mention that the new plan of BestEthanol pays a variable return of 0.4-2.2%
This isn't something new, because in the older script and domain I noticed there were already days with 0.4%, that were concerning me a bit, because if during the life of my deposits I had half of days paying 0.4%, it would lower a lot the final ROI.
So the biggest difference now is that your deposit expires when reaches 180%, whatever the returns are being great, or low, like 0.4%.

I think it was a good decision, because it increases the flexibility to admin and the sustainability of the program.
And also makes it more fair to investors, because previously, depending on the time a deposit was made, some members could reach higher levels of final ROI.

I am going now to update the review and the description in my list.

News

2010-08-04T16:54:00.000-07:00

Hello folks, things have been a bit quiet among the programs I have deposits/monitor, with just one exception, Optimum Pride.
But let's give a quick look at others before talking about it.

Lions Society- this week the insurance fund gave 2.71% profits, a bit higher than last week (2.63%), as expected, because none of the programs in recent Movers and Shakers list has fallen so far.

Also, ShareHolders received 2.85% profits from their shares.

BestEthanol- I think I read on Monday that the new script and host migration would happen in 48h. So if any downtime happens we already know the reason.
Let's see if this happens smoothly and without problems.

Now about Optimum Pride, I really was surprised when I received this update yesterday:

This is our first newsletter. Some changes have been made on Optimum Pride. 1. All free members will be deleted after some time. Make sure you upgrade your account. 2. We decrease our minimum investment to only $10 (Standard Plan). 3. Starter Plan will be deleted. Members who already invested on this plan will still receive their earnings. 4. Optimum Plan has been created. (103% after 1 Calendar Day). You can see the details here: https://www.optimumpride.com/optimumplan.php

Well, I will be honest, I didn't checked that link (maybe because I was chocked) because it looked like a new "plan", and I checked the site to make sure....and there it also say it is a "plan".
This quickly concerned me a lot because it would render all bigger plans totally useless, and people on them wouldn't be happy at all. And would bring sustainability problems

But thanks to comments in my shout-box that referred this "plan" to be similar to an "lottery" I got intrigued and finally clicked in the above link to see if there was more info:

If you notice, you have 50:50 chances to get 103% after 1 calendar day. Even number batches will be placed on the Standard Plan in order to protect the Optimum Plan itself. (....)

For example, you fund $100 to your wallet. The last digit of your transaction batch is 3. We will place your money on the Optimum Plan (103% after 1 calendar day). If your last digit is 8, then 60% of your money which is $60 ($100 x 60%) will be placed on the Standard Plan. This will earn you (total ROI) $124.8 at the end of the plan term (daily cashout). That’s it. Simple and powerful.

So after reading it, my worries about sustainability are gone. However, it raised me some concerns with new members of the site, because if you access it through main page, you won't see much info about it, and it really seems to be a "plan" like others, which could mislead these new members (so far you it seems you only have info about it if you go to the news page).
However this also won't be a problem because in order to try your luck with this plan, you have to:

Write down “Optimum Plan” and your username in your memo when you make a spend.

To summary:
-you have now an option to try your luck:
-either have luck and see your money deposited in this "103% after 1 calendar" day plan,
-or have bad luck and see your principal reduced to 60% of its original size, and see it going to the 0.6% for 180 business days plan, to receive a total ROI of 124.8% or a total profit of 24.8%.

My opinion...I think its risk vs reward ratio is not enough to give it a shot. Don't forget that if you have bad luck, you will have to wait around 180 business days to be in profit (you have to wait till you have the 60% principal back).

It now all depends in how hyip market embraces this idea, as it works as a double edged knife:
-might create some buzz around the program, increase popularity, and even deposits (some people will probably like to try their luck).

but also can bring some negative aspects:
-makes them look desperate to have attention;
-that can damage their "professional" look it first gave to us.

Well, let's see how people think about it, because it's the hyip market (investors) who will dictate which of these edges will be prevalent.

Other news

Ok, I finally decided to make the rotating banners official.
The final decision was 4 slots, and 20$/month for each. I think it gives a good exposure and have a fair price, and in my opinion it is a better bet for long term advertising because allow a longer advertising time (2 months here has the same or less price than fixed banners).

AMF review

2010-08-02T10:15:00.000-07:00

Note: if you want to know a bit more about the past of AMF and older investors, check HyipBlogger review.

Hello folks, I finally managed to temporary fix my router with some wires to bypass the on/off button. It turns out the problem was this easy. Later today I will try to solder the wires to make the "fix" permanent.

So, here is am finally to bring the promised (long ago) review of AMF 1989.

Starting with the plan offered (yes, only one):
-variable up to 25% each month, minimum 10$.

One important thing about the plan is that your deposit is not invested in the first 15days, so you will earn your first profits after ~45days, and then in a monthly basis.
This is because of their AP business verified account, that only allows to withdraw new money after 14days (check here).

Another important point (that I like) is that you are free to withdraw your principal at any time, with the same 15days of waiting.

Support feedback: √√√ (+3) email, tickets, sms, and he even phones you. What else do you want?

Design and content: √ (+1) the design is clearly old-school, the kind I used to do when I was still in the IT course. Still it isn't unattractive and it's easy to navigate across the site.
About the content, everything seems to be original.

Script and security: √ (+1.5) my first impression is that AMF takes security seriously: there is a DDoS protection page and the script was annoying enough to force me to use a very long password with letters and numbers.
The script seems to be customized. The site has forced SSL connection provided by Equifax and it's hosted in a dedicated server provided by Ace-host.net.
Frankly it is the first time I hear about this host provider, but it seems to use hardware DDoS protection and has some nice servers listed (although I don't know which AMF uses).

Payment Processors: √ (+1) Officially AMF accepts LR and AP. PM and GDP are the same thing as LR, so they don't miss too much. Don't forget its AP account is business verified to offer financial services, something rare in this industry.
Also, Ritish said me, in past, that other processors could be accepted, so if you are one of those not using LR or AP, contact Ritish to see what can be done.

Sustainability and longevity potential
Well, I don't know how to treat AMF here. It appears to be more than a regular ponzi, especially if we compare to others hyips.
But we never know the truth, unless we are the admins lol. So AMF falls in that "gray area".

Supporting the idea of AMF being "something more":
-the program returned instead of just running away and return with a new name/site/design/lie.
-there are some videos, showing the admin explaining what AMF does:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsNkGD5WvLo follow up on the micro farm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrX2IGxOV_U The other farm we have we will follow up in a week to show the progress of setup
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29eR3LSwZUY this is clear as you can see shops at the end and live fish prices.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJXxIbA6gv8 This is another farm.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Weig4sDwFZ0 this second farm and work being done
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLcb1F35-78 PART ONE THE WAIT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUiCUiv9GyE pt 2 PLAYING HIDE AND SEEK
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBkqTJDI02Y pt 3 THE FISH FRIES
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lw_ABZyLQu4 Trip to the farm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBL5FDMwEug Next Project

As usual, even if it is real, we should always treat as a game (to avoid the temptation invest more than we should). As I said at beginning of this review, AMF already had some bumps on its online life, showing us that a real business can also suffer unforeseen situations.

Treating it as a pure ponzi, its Alexa shows a slow growth on reach graph, meaning AMF is getting more and more popular (although very slowly).

So for these two topics I will give √ (+1), as it seems to be more than a ponzi, and even treating it as a ponzi things look good on the growth side with still plenty of room to improve.

To end the review, the final score for AMF1989 will be 4.5/5.
For me it's on the same level of BestEthanol, maybe a bit better (and don't forget BE admin already met Lea in Hong Kong, something also unusual in hyip industry).

And the option to leave at any time is really attractive for members, allowing to jump out in case you feel insecure or something.

As usual, invest wisely, and avoid to put more than you can afford in any online (and offline) venture :)

Connection problems

2010-07-31T03:04:00.000-07:00

Hello folks, it seems it won't be today that I publish the AMF review....
My router decided to take permanence holidays yesterday (you might have noticed the lack of my answers in the shout-box).
At first I thought it was just temporary because it wasn't the first time my laptop didn't recognized the router or if recognize couldn't connect to it.

But this morning I decided to check and was turned off, it just doesn't give any signal of life and AC/DC converter is working.
Well, I will try my lack of electronic skills and open it to see if the problem is something obvious (it is out of warranty anyway).

I got online using the mobile internet my cellphone carrier offered, but this isn't cheap, 1€/hour due to being prepaid (since it was an offer I accepted because of no contract and would be useful for these situations).
So this connection is not ideal to stay all day online :)

Finally...all exams done

2010-07-30T05:20:00.000-07:00

As the title says: finally :)

There isn't any news across the sites I have in my list (either from personal list or monitoring service).
But it's better to have no news than bad news, right?

About my "blogs partners" list, I decided to remove HyipCritics, because the it wasn't updated since April.
And on its place I added HyipBlogger, a nice blog I discover recently, or better, he discovered me because he invited me to the upcoming blog Carnival that will happen soon on his blog.

I recommend to take a look at this blog, and mainly at the Walk-through section, because there is some good information published there.

I am now back to my work routine, so I don't know if today I will be able to publish the promised (long ago) review of AMF. Probably tomorrow.

News

2010-07-27T12:51:00.000-07:00

Hello folks, don't expect too much from me this week (mainly reviews), because I am back to University to do my last exam (finally), so I need to focus on it.

Still, I managed some time to publish the recent news.

BestEthanol- it is planning to change the host due to late HushHosting problems, and it will take the same opportunity to upgrade the script. Usually I don't like big changes because of the problems that can arise during the change of scripts, but I am a bit optimistic because BE is taking a conservative approach by opening a new domain for the new host to help a smooth migration.

We suffer large difficulties with our host the last few
weeks. Payments are all processed.
We decide exchange the host and improve the script at the same
time. No downtime is expected as we are setting up a alternative
domain for the new host. Please be informed we additionally modify
the benefit option. The variable interests are now from 0.4%-2%
daily. During harvest the sum will be stronger as throughout the
seeding operation. Our new script permits to reward every member
until he received 180% of benefit. This is settled daily Monday-
Friday among the benefit variable from 0.4%-2.0% until the total of
180% are obtained.

All monitoring services, please correct the listing accordingly and
renew your referral link as soon we send you the new link in the
new script.
There will be no downtime or no delay in settlements throughout the
switch, and we are redirecting our old domain to the new domain as
soon the procedure is executed.

Wbwso- I think it is fair to share the answer from wbwso about the FSA warning. It's good to see its admin is taking proactive measures, showing he is passionate:

We recently stop the internal transfer function since this was in breach of FSA rules (we could be seen as a payment processor and for that we do not have a license).

We are also working on removing the “add funds to account” and all purchases will have to be made direct via the payment processor since this is also one thing we are in breach with the FSA regulations.

We are in contact with the FSA regarding this, and buying-selling-administrating webites and domains is not a regualted service, so it is a matter of removing the functions that make us breach the rules. This is in progress.# Also you can check directly with the goverments own website that we are correctly registered, companieshouse.gov.uk, use the webcheck function and search for WBwso Ltd.

Also, here is a link to mmg forum, showing a lengthy answer from admin to all questions raised in mmg discussion (it's a good read): http://www.moneymakergroup.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=237199&view=findpost&p=6120484

For me: the rules are still the same, treat every online venture as a "game", and hyips as ponzis. That's why my longevity and forecast analysis are done always thinking at the worst.

For wbwso, the FSA warning doesn't mean it is a ponzi or not, it just mean it doesn't comply with the rules. In my previous article I was just talking about the negative impact it could bring (it appears it was lower than expected).

New update about Wbwso

2010-07-24T04:27:00.000-07:00

Just some minutes ago I published I was planning to invest in Wbwso, due to the "opportunity window" still alive, as I said in my small review.

However, during my daily blogs surf, I found that Wbwso "opportunity window" has been spoiled by FSA, thanks to ThinkPink monitor.

The warning is not new: http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pages/Doing/Regulated/Law/pdf/wbwso.pdf , and was issued in May, and checking the Alexa trend, it seems that it hasn't affected the growth of Wbwso.
But it is hard to say if many people knew about it or not. Judging that only now I saw this information, it seems pretty few people knew about it.

This probably will have a negative impact in Wbwso.

And then, there is the phishing email....that I gave low importance due to its "cheap" header. Sometimes we see these kind of emails originating from the site domain itself, which corresponds to a bigger probability of scamming attempt from the admin (they use the usual excuse of being hacked, but I suspect most of times it was them that sent the email lol).

About Wbwso, I am not sure if the email was sent from the administration, because it was sent to wrong email that is not associated with Wbwso....

However I agree with Paolo...everytime we see a phishing email, the site mentioned on it collapses soon (although there are exceptions, of course).

So, what's the conclusion?
Don't know, because:
-the FSA warning so far had no impact in Wbwso growth trend. BUT I suspect almost none of investors/potential investors knew about it.
For me it doesn't changes much because I always treated Wbwso as a game.
But this can affect the growth of Wbwso, leading to faster collapse (when treating it as a ponzi).

-the phishing emails are always a sign of warning, but in this case I am not sure if it was really sent from Wbwso.

Anyway, I suspect the FSA warning can affect Wbwso longevity, spoiling the "opportunity window" I saw when doing the mini-review.

So I will pass it, and will use the money I saved to place in Lions Society to compensate the last investments I did (I said I would try to have equilibrated amounts between my own strategy and Lea's strategy).

Please note that I am not telling to avoid Wbwso like a plague, but to have in mind all this if you are pretending to invest into it. And we don't know if all this will have a significant impact in Wbwso, it might make no difference at all.
It's just me, that like to be always a bit conservative when placing my money in hyips :)